Goldeneyes

It's been a long time since I posted you about the dogs for the last time. It is actually almost two whole years! Can it be so?! And also then Nuka was seen in the plastic post surgery collar! And no, she has not been wearing it since that! Gosh No! It indeed took several more weeks of her to recover and Pii to destroy some of my apple trees. 

What at the end helped in healing the wound in 2021 was the honey. Pharmacy honey for the wounds is extremely expensive. Our vet recommended to buy Finnish honey meant for humans to eat. From a Finnish shop; and to spread it over the wound 2-3 times in a day. Why Finnish and in Finland? Because we have strict rules considering producing foods and selling it so you can be sure the grocery honey is as clean as the pharmacy one. The only difference is it that pharmacy one faces even more controlling than the food one. (We used the sticky honey like the vet recommended, not the running or the hard one, but the one between, that stays on well and is like an antiseptic glue for the wound.)

Anyway, Nuka was in a surgery on 2.3.2023 because she had lipoma in her belly. It has grown in a year to the size of an egg. None of our dogs has ever before have it but I know it is very common.  Nuka is 8 years now so we decided to get it removed because we don't know will it grow bigger and bother her bowels function or not. Nuka is in a good fit so it was still ok to send her in the surgery. Unfortunately she is experienced patient so this was just a minor surgery to her and she is doing just fine.

Meanwhile little Pii has been busy. Before pulling has been her beloved hobby but now when she is almost 3 years old she has started to work seriously in pulling. She is participating in a nature conservation project. 

In the project people fund, build, take and look after the goldeneye bird nests. We participate in taking the nests into the wild and looking after them. Pii pulls 2 nests at time by her sled into the wilderness. Goldeneyes face a heavy hunting in Europe and problems to find proper trees for nesting here in Finland where the trees cut down grow so slow because of the climate. And when they grow they still never reach the size of southern trees. 

From the video you can see that despite Pii is doing a hard and great job she still has energy left to use her breaks in digging the snow to find little creatures or frozen water under the snow. 

This combo arises curiosity among the tourists that see us around while passing by. But if you spot us, you know what we are up to. 

New&Old

Last December I bought new winter coat for me. It had no faux fur around the hood. Which is only good 'cause faux fur is useless here where I live so it is just a waste of nature resources and supports only oil industry. If a coat has a faux fur I always need to take it off and throw away.

My old winter jacket is still doing just fine. It has lost a bit of its warmth but is still very usable and I wear it weekly. That's why I could not re-use -again- its fur for the new winter jacket. And that's why my mother-in-law gave me a fur collar from an old coat she didn't need. 

The shape of the old fur collar matched quite well to the shape of my new hood. That's why I decided to put it rather inside than just around the hood's outer edge. 

You can't just pin anything made of leather or skin/fur. Pinning makes permanent holes, pierces, to the skin. That´s why, if you need to make it stay, you need to use some kind of clips. Anything does just fine as long as it opens wide enough so that you can attach it. 

This time I decided to sew the fur from its one edge to the hood by my sewing machine. For it I needed leather needles.

The other edge I sew by hands -as usual- to fasten it into the lining of the hood. So, both edges of the fur are attached to different places of the hood. So, this is made differently than in FurHood -tutorial.

At the end, the fur turns inside the hood (instead of rounding the hood from its outer edge around the face) Some consider this warmer. It might be that but after using this and other styles I am ready to say that in my use I need it to be done rather like in FurHood-tutorial than like this -turn inside. It is because I have over 30 years old -bad- frost bites in my cheeks. When you compare these two styles you can notice how much more and better "the old style" covers my face.  I need -most of all- the fur to be a wind breaker. In that way it creates like a tiny hut for my head hidden in the hood. Of course the pattern of the hood determines a lot too but a fur around the edge makes it deeper anyway.

Anyway, this style I used now works good enough and is pretty enough. So, I let it be and protect my cheeks with extra collar. See how beautiful moose horn button my father-in-law made for me for my birthday for my Sámi belt!

AAW Fair Isle Socks No3

At spring I finally always have time to knit woollen socks for me for the next winter season. Here is the pair I designed and just finished for myself. 

These socks are extremely warm for two reasons: They reach all the way up to my knees and the leg parts is made of AAW (50% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% ethic produced FinnSheep wool, 10% nylon) (100g = 238m). Angora wool is 7 x warmer than sheep wool. 

For the decoration and foot parts I used loose ends of StarDustSet made of Novita Tähti yarn (74% wool, 25% polyamidi, 1% polyester) (100g = 200m) and Novita 7 veljestä Lapintaika yarn (75% wool, 24% polyamidi, 1% polyester) (100g = 200m).

Inughuit

In March 2023 I encouraged you to read a book that tells about Arctic. To find my book, first I decided the region I want the book to be placed or based on. That's Greenland! But not in the way the tourists see it, that was my only personal demand. Otherwise I was open to all the genres so for the next I went to my library database to find books that tells about Greenland. That is how I crashed at Tiina Itkonen's book Inughuit (in Finnish and English) which seemed to be very interesting. Then I went to the library to pick it up. When I had it in my hands I experienced a tiny -actually a huge- crisis. Is it a book? No, it can't be a book. There is only pictures! How can I read it if there is no words!!!???!!! For a while I stood there, in the silent library, in silence, this book in my hands. Then I decided it must be a book because it is in a library's books department. 😀

I felt a bit sad because I thought this books doesn't tell about Inughuits at all, instead it shows just pictures of them. I decided to borrow the book anyway and stay in my plan. I decided to google about Inughuits later after watching the book. I thought I watch the book in an hour. This book destroyed several prejudices of mine considering photo art books. I used 13 days with the book despite it mainly had only pictures about Inughuits. I also found some written words about the Inughuits in the book. At the end I don't need to google at all. The book answered into my present questions about the topic.

The picture you see on this post is taken by me from the book cover and adjusted to make the clear difference it is not or nothing like the original photo Tiina Itkonen has made. You can see Tiina Itkonen's fabulous photos of the book on her website Inughuit 1995-2002.

For sure, in the future, I want to read literature written by indigenous people of Greenland. 

The Reading Challenge 2023 No 3

The Reading Challenge 2023 is here!

On 2023 I encourage you to read books from different places. No other rules but geographical location. You can choose the genre! 

March 2023 theme is Arctic!

When you google it you can see Arctic region includes many variable places including many different countries and cultures. I am living by the Arctic region and living Arctic life that impacts and determines everything I do. Still, also I find the Arctic region full of things I don't know because it is so plentiful, despite the climate and geographical location determine a lot. I have already picked up my book and must admit, I am confused with it!

If you are looking for an inspiration you can see Reading Challenges 2017, 2021 and 2022 include some books that base on or tell about Arctic region.